E-commerce giant Amazon on Thursday moved to the Supreme Court of India for the continuation of arbitration proceedings with the Future Group to continue before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC).
Gopal Subramanium, a senior advocate, spoke on behalf of Amazon to the court that the tribunal was fixed to happen on November 28 for the last leg proceedings.
The SIAC tribunal had laid off Future group’s petition for termination of proceedings. The retail group then proceeded to the Delhi High Court to challenge the tribunal’s judgment under Article 227.
Fearing this, Amazon moved to the apex court of India to avoid any failure or cancellation of hearings of the tribunal proceedings by the Delhi High Court.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud told the counsel of Future Group, “You cannot keep stultifying the proceedings before the arbitral tribunal and this is just a ploy to delay the proceedings…All ploys by well-heeled parties to delay the arbitration…Your client is trying to be too clever by half… As a Chief Justice of this court I am concerned.”
He also called out the Indian merchandiser for filing over 200 pleas to delay arbitration proceedings.
“This is an international arbitration… Is this how the courts of this country will bring repute to the process? Global India must maintain the sanctity of international arbitral proceedings…We will not let the arbitration process be stultified,” the Chief Justice of India said.
Future Group and Amazon have been busy in a conflict after the former chose to sell its Big Bazaar enterprise to Reliance Retail, an associate of Reliance Industries.
The agreement was opposed by Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC on grounds that its investment of Rs 1,400 crore in Future Coupons, which is one of the supporters of Future Retail, does not permit Future to sell retail investments to certain companies, including Reliance.
To solve this, the US e-commerce giant demanded a monetary settlement for its Rs 1,400 crore investment in Future Coupons.
The issue will be next given attention on 25 November. The Chief Justice has presided over the parties to be present before the SIAC on 28 November.
On 28 June, SIAC contradicted a Future Group plea desiring termination of arbitration proceedings over the US giant’s investment in Future Coupons.
In its order, the SIAC held that it would go on with the arbitration proceedings that began in October 2020 after Future Group offered to sell its retail, wholesale, and logistics acquisitions to Reliance industries for ₹24, 713 crores.
